The wherewithal of life: ethics, migration, and the question of well-being

Abstract

Through extensive conversations with three key informants - from Uganda, Burkina Faso, and Mexico - in Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Cambridge, MA, Jackson compares and contrasts what is at stake for each person in migrating from the global south in search of fulfillment and a future. These life stories dramatize, in often harrowing detail, a number of ethical and existential issues that will be familiar to everyone, if for no other reason than that the vicissitudes of attachment, separation, loss, and renewal are unavoidable aspects of every human life